1999 IIHF Women's World Championship

The 1999 IIHF Women's World Championships was held between March 8–14, 1999, in Espoo and Vantaa in Finland. Team Canada won their fifth consecutive gold medal at the World Championships defeating the United States. Canada skated to a solid 3–1 victory in the final to take the gold with a solid performance that saw them winning all five games.^[1]

1999 IIHF Women's World Championship

Tournament details
Host country	Finland
Venue(s)	2 (in 2 host cities)
Dates	March 8–14, 1999
Opened by	Martti Ahtisaari
Teams	8
Final positions
Champions	Canada (5th title)
Runners-up	United States
Third place	Finland
Fourth place	Sweden
Tournament statistics
Games played	20
Goals scored	138 (6.9 per game)
Attendance	25,234 (1,262 per game)
Scoring leader(s)	Jenny Schmidgall 12 points
← 1997 2000 →

Finland picked up their fifth consecutive bronze medal, with a win over Sweden who had their strongest performance since 1992.

Qualification

Main article: 1999 Women's World Ice Hockey Championships Qualification

The 1999 tournament created the format that has remained to the present, as the World Championships was greatly expanded to incorporate the European Championships and the Pacific Qualification Tournaments. There were a series of Qualification Tournaments Held to assign teams places in this first year, with the standard Promotion and Relegation model following after that. The top five nations from the Nagano Olympics were joined by three qualifiers.^[2]

• Top five at the Olympics:
  •  United States
  •  Canada
  •  Finland
  •  China
  •  Sweden
• Qualifiers from world tournaments:
  •  Germany - Final Qualification group A winner
  •   Switzerland - Final Qualification group B winner
  •  Russia - Won playoff against  Norway for final spot

World Championship Group A

The eight participating teams were divided up into two seeded groups as below. The teams played each other once in a single round robin format. The top two teams from the group proceeded to the Final Round, while the remaining teams played in the consolation round.

First round

Group A

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	United States	3	3	0	0	27	2	+25	6	Advanced to Final round
2	Sweden	3	2	0	1	10	12	−2	4
3	China	3	1	0	2	4	11	−7	2	Sent to Consolation round
4	Russia	3	0	0	3	4	20	−16	0

Source: Hockey Canada

Results

All times local

March 8, 1999 4:30 pm

United States

10 – 2 ( 2 - 2, 4 - 0, 4 - 0)

Russia

Espoo

	Looney 08:08 Schmidgall 17:57 Granato 26:03 Bye 31:53 Schmidgall 34:43 Wendell 35:29 Looney 44:02 King 46:11 Fisher 53:35 Dunn 53:51 Goals Tsareva 14:22 Bourina 16:01

March 8, 1999 4:30 pm

China

1 – 3

Sweden

Vantaa

March 9, 1999 8:00 pm

Sweden

0 – 11 ( 0 - 3, 0 - 4, 0 - 4)

United States

Vantaa

	Goals Ruggiero 00:58 Schmidgall 6:35 O'Sullivan 19:33 Bye 27:05 Merz 29:05 Grantato 34:50 King 36:34 Dunn 43:27 Granato 44:11 King 46:21 Wendell 58:11

March 9, 1999 4:30 pm

China

3 – 2

Russia

Vantaa

March 11, 1999 4:30 pm

Russia

0 – 7

Sweden

Espoo

March 11, 1999 8:00 pm

United States

6 – 0 ( 1 - 0, 2 - 0, 3 - 0)

China

Vantaa

	King 12:15 Schmidgall 25:59 Bye 36:52 Bye 42:20 Fisher 56:33 Bye 58:36 Goals

Group B

Standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Canada	3	3	0	0	24	0	+24	6	Advanced to Final round
2	Finland	3	2	0	1	16	1	+15	4
3	Germany	3	1	0	2	5	26	−21	2	Sent to Consolation round
4	Switzerland	3	0	0	3	4	22	−18	0

Source: Hockey Canada

Results

All times local

March 8, 1999 8:00 pm

Canada

10 – 0 ( 2 - 0, 6 - 0, 2 - 0 )

Switzerland

Vantaa

	Wickenheiser 13:00 Goyette 13:30 Wickenheiser 27:56 Hefford 30:50 Sunohara 31:34 Campbell 31:45 Dupuis 37:38 Benoit 38:27 Campbell 45:55 Hefford 49:43 Goals

March 8, 1999 8:00 pm

Finland

9 – 0

Germany

Espoo

March 9, 1999 4:30 pm

Germany

0 – 13 ( 0 - 4, 0 - 6, 0 - 3 )

Canada

Espoo

	Goals Drolet 03:43 Wickenheiser 06:43 Ouellette 08:23 St-Louis 10:34 Drolet 22:05 Hefford 27:52 Kellar 31:16 Heaney 33:50 Hefford 35:13 Heaney 39:30 Rivard 51:41 Goyette 54:46 Botterill 57:07

March 9, 1999 8:00 pm

Finland

7 – 0

Switzerland

Espoo

March 11, 1999 8:00 pm

Switzerland

4 – 5 ( 0 - 0, 1 - 0, 0 - 0 )

Germany

Vantaa

March 11, 1999 8:00 pm

Canada

1 – 0

Finland

Espoo

	Sunohara 26:00 Goals

Playoff round

Consolation round 5–8 place

March 12, 1999 4:30 pm

Germany

2 – 6

Russia

Vantaa

March 12, 1999 7:30 pm

China

3 – 2

Switzerland

Vantaa

Consolation round 7–8 place

March 14, 1999 4:00 pm

Germany

3 – 0

Switzerland

Vantaa

Consolation round 5–6 place

March 14, 1999 2:00 pm

Russia

1 – 4

China

Vantaa

Final round

	Semi finals 13 March 1999					Finals 14 March 1999
	A1	United States	3
	B2	Finland	1
						Canada		3
						United States		1
	B1	Canada	4
	A2	Sweden	1			Bronze Medal Game
						Finland		8
						Sweden		2

Semifinals

March 13, 1999 2:00 pm

Canada

4 – 1 ( 1 - 0, 1 - 1, 2 - 0 )

Sweden

Espoo

	Drolet 18:14 Drolet 30:18 Hefford 47:27 St-Louis 57:10 Goals Mansson 26:17

March 13, 1999 7:30 pm

United States

3 – 1 ( 0 - 1, 2 - 0, 1 - 0)

Finland

Espoo

	Darwitz 26:46 Darwitz 36:27 Wendell 55:00 Goals Hanninen 19:58

Match for third place

March 14, 1999 2:00 pm

Finland

8 – 2

Sweden

Espoo

Final

March 14, 1999 6:00 pm

Canada

3 – 1

United States

Espoo

Champions

1999 IIHF World Women Championship winners
Canada 5th title

Scoring leaders

Player	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM	+/-
Jenny Schmidgall	5	5	7	12	0	9
Jayna Hefford	5	5	6	11	0	8
Kirsi Hanninen	5	5	5	10	2	6
Petra Vaarakallio	5	3	7	10	4	4
Sari Fisk	5	4	5	9	0	3
Karyn Bye	5	5	3	8	2	6
Nancy Drolet	5	4	4	8	0	6
Cammi Granato	5	3	5	8	0	9
Hayley Wickenheiser	5	3	5	8	8	5
Katie King	5	4	3	7	2	6

Goaltending leaders

Player	Mins	GA	SOG	GAA	SV%
Sami Jo Small	180:00	1	56	0.33	98.21
Kim St-Pierre	120:00	1	34	0.50	97.06
Erin Whitten	179:03	4	72	1.34	94.44
Tuula Puputti	237:27	6	89	1.52	93.26
Laurie Beliveau	120:00	2	23	1.00	91.30

^[3]

Final standings

Rk.	Team	Notes
	Canada
	United States
	Finland
4.	Sweden
5.	China
6.	Russia
7.	Germany
8.	Switzerland	Relegated to the 2000 World Championships Group B

World Championship Group B

Main article: 1999 Women's World Ice Hockey Championships (Lower Divisions)

In addition to the main World Championships, this year saw the first running of World Championship Group B, which replaced the European Championships. Eight further teams played in this competition, hosted by France in the town of Colmar.  Japan won the tournament defeating  Norway in the final 7-1 to win the competition and to ensure their Promotion to the main World Championship in 2000.

Directorate Awards

• Goalie: Sami Jo Small, (Canada)
• Defender: Kirsi Hanninen, (Finland)
• Forward: Jenny Schmidgall, (United States)^[4]